Commentary

The state of Maryland recently closed out the fiscal year with a $2 billion surplus. This produced all kinds of bipartisan self-congratulatory talk about fiscal discipline and good budgetary stewardship at the Sept. 14 Board of Public Works meeting with Republican Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford and Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Democrat, taking bows. Much of that money is already slated to go to what is known as the “Rainy Day Fund,” which is essentially a savings account for when state government faces unexpected expenses such as a natural disaster, an abrupt economic downtown or a serious drop in tax revenue.

My neighbor Bernie has been leaving books on my stoop for at least 20 years. To say he’s thoughtful is to say that Lamar Jackson is athletic. Bernie hears a rumor about neighbors — that their kids play ice hockey, for instance — and, forget about it: You can expect old National Hockey League yearbooks and biographies of NHL stars on the stoop every couple of months, usually with a sticky note attached and an amusing quip written with a felt-tip pen.

Recently my daughter, Lisa, called from Texas where she moved last year when she got married. She and her new husband are hoping to start a family when she finishes grad school. “Mom, I’m worried about what’s happening in Texas. What if something goes wrong when I’m pregnant?” Lisa said. “I won’t be able to get help.” “Just come back to Pennsylvania,” I said. When problems crop up, moms double down, right?

I grew up with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. I followed Ron and Hermione’s slow, but eventual, romantic relationship through the books. I pondered with Harry over which female classmate he would take to the dance, and I celebrated with him when he eventually found love with Ginny Weasley. Reading the Harry Potter novels and watching the movies, I shared in the characters’ experiences of growing up, yet I found my story diverging from theirs. I am gay, and they are not.

Last month, in a videotaped appearance for a “Pod Save America” live show, Stacey Abrams, a celebrated Democratic activist and the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, said Black men have the power to determine the election in that state. After explaining that some Black men chose not to vote because “often the leadership that gets elected is not reflective of their needs,” she said: “I know that if we have the kind of turnout possible among Black men, and they vote for me, I will win this election. That is why my campaign has been so focused on making sure we’re addressing those challenges.”

On the heels of last week’s column on the rise of youth carjackings in D.C. came a Labor Day news conference by Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D), who drew a sharp focus on growing youth-involved crimes in her jurisdiction just outside D.C. Statistics provided by Alsobrooks and county Police Chief Malik Aziz tell the story: 438 juveniles arrested so far this year in Prince George’s, a big jump from 207 juvenile arrests through the same time last year. In D.C., youth arrests are up about 12 percent, with two-thirds of this year’s 330 carjacking arrests involving juveniles.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears once again to be waning, as daily case counts, hospitalizations and thankfully, even deaths have been declining in recent weeks. But the virus has come back before, and the likelihood remains strong that it will return again, as soon as this fall or winter. Looking at the case count on a graph is like looking at waves at the beach. Some waves are smaller, some are bigger, and some are huge. But the waves do not go away completely. The daily average of new cases in the United States on July 14 was almost 130,000. This week, the daily average is less than 70,000 and trending down. But it was just 28,000 in April, while in January more than 800,000 cases were reported on average every day.